Thursday, February 2, 2012

"The FCC yesterday voted to make several changes to the agency's Lifeline subsidy program, revamping it away from voice services and focusing it on bringing broadband to additional U.S. households. Like the USF program, the FCC's Lifeline program has seen its fair share of abuse and waste over the years, something the FCC hopes to avoid with a few changes they say will save the government up to $2 billion over 3 years. Among them is a new National Lifeline Accountability Database aimed at preventing subsidies from being given to multiple phone carriers on behalf of the same individual (imagine that). The full release outlines some of the other additional changes, including changes in data collection that may also help reduce use of the program as an unaccountable telco subsidy party."